The present invention relates to an a rail mounted patient lift.
It is known to displace rail mounted patient lifts along a rail to a desired location to attach and lift a patient and then move the patient by the lift. This is normally done by a hand-held controller device which an attendant operates to displace the lift carriage from a stored position, usually at an end of the rail and move it along the rail to a desired position. When doing so, the attendant will follow the carriage along the rail, with the controller in hand, to a position where a patient is then fitted with a harness to be attached to a sling hanger of the lift. The attendant then lowers the sling using the hand-held controller. Because these carriages are displaced at relatively slow speeds along the rail, it is time-consuming to retrieve the carriage from a stored position and move it to a desired position.
As is well known, in present day health care systems, the cost of operating the health care systems is of great concern. Therefore, if the time required to displace these lifts was to be greatly reduced, this would permit the attendant, usually a nurse""s aide, to carry out other functions instead of walking by the lift as it is displaced from its stored position to a position of use and back to the storage position.
In other words, if the lift could be automatically displaced from a stored position to a desired position of use and effect other functions on its own safely, this would permit the nurse""s aide to do other jobs such as the placement of a sling around the patient while the lift is being displaced to a position above the patient.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a rail mounted patient lift comprising a ceiling mounted rail, a carriage mounted for displacement along said rail, power operated drive means for displacing the carriage along the rail, a sling hanger secured to a flexible elongate support element, power operated lifting means for extending and retracting the elongate support element relative to the carriage, a manually operable controller and control circuit means for moving said carriage to a selected one of a plurality of different positions along the rail in response to a first command signal from the controller.
In the rail mounted patient lift, the control circuit means includes a programmable memory.
In the rail mounted patient lift, the control circuit means is operable to move the carriage to a predetermined homing position in response to a second command signal from the controller.
The rail mounted patient lift can further comprise a load detector for detecting if a load is present on the sling hanger, and the power operated lifting means is operable by the control circuit means to raise the sling hanger if in a down position with no load thereon when receiving a command signal from the controller to move the carriage along the rail.
The rail mounted patient lift can further comprise a plurality of location identifying means mounted at predetermined positions along the track and detector means mounted on the carriage for detecting the presence of the location identifying means.
In the rail mounted patient lift, the location identifying means are magnetic elements. The magnetic elements can be adhesively attached to the rail.
The rail mounted patient lift can further comprise audible sound generator means for emitting a sound when the detector means detects any of the location identifying means to signal the movement of the carriage and its location along the rail.
In the rail mounted patient lift, the control circuit means can be further provided with a sling hanger lowering function to lower the sling hanger to a desired preprogrammed position upon the carriage reaching a desired location.
In the rail mounted patient lift, the manually operated controller can have first and second switches for actuating the power operated lifting means (lift motor) to raise or lower the sling hanger, a station identification switch to instruct the control circuit means of a desired location along the rail, a homing switch for the carriage to automatically return to a homing position, and forward and reverse switches to displace the carriage in a desired direction along the rail when the sling hanger is in use.
In the rail mounted patient lift, the control circuit means identifies a selected position by detecting the distance of travel of the carriage along the rail.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a rail mounted patient lift comprising a ceiling-mounted rail, a carriage mounted for displacement along said rail, motorised drive means for displacing said carriage, a sling hanger secured to a retractable cable and vertically displaceable from said carriage by a lift motor, control circuit means for receiving command signals from a hand-operated controller, a load detector to detect if a load is present on said sling hanger, said control circuit operating said lift motor to retract said sling hanger if in a down position with no load thereon when receiving a command signal from said control circuit to freely move said carriage on said rail from a homing position, said control circuit having a programmable memory with a homing function to automatically return said carriage to said homing position when receiving a homing signal, and means to arrest said freely moving carriage at a desired position along said rail.